Skills Initiative USA: Entwicklung des Arbeitskräftepotenzials in Ohio

On December 5, 2012 Ambassador Peter Ammon met with Ohio Governor John Kasich in the state's capital of Columbus to take part in an important discussion about workforce development, which they had scheduled a few months previous. Leaders of German businesses, representatives from government and high-ranking representatives in education were also on hand to discuss how Ohio is fostering its citizens' education and training and how that translates to a better workforce.

The goals of the meeting were three-fold:

1. to hold an off-the-record conversation on Ohio's workforce challenges and opportunities;
2. to get actual feedback on how to make Ohio's workforce even stronger through applying German–honed techniques;
3. and to foster closer collaboration between businesses based in Ohio and local technical training providers.

This meeting had its roots in a meeting between Ambassador Ammon and Governor Kasich in May 2012. There, they became convinced that with the wealth of German investment in Ohio, along with the German tradition of creative and successful vocational training, it would be prudent to gather together executives from important German firms to discuss ways in which Ohio can improve its workforce.

For Ambassador Ammon, this was the next step in developing his important public policy program called Skills Initiative, which seeks to bring together German and American businesses and local education/training providers with the aim of developing training programs best suited to businesses' needs.

The Embassy launched the Skills Initiative to identify and spread best practices in sustainable workforce development in the US. The key element of the Skills Initiative is that a number of German companies in the States have become drivers of a process that brings together businesses and local education and training providers and is aimed at developing training programs best suited to the needs of businesses.

There is no more apt destination for the Skills Initiative than the Buckeye State. Ohio created 96,500 jobs from October 2011 to October 2012, the fourth highest total in the US. German companies are well aware of the fertility Ohio soil offers for jobs. Indeed, German investments in the US, and especially in Ohio, continue a successful pattern of investment that contributes to job creation in the US.

"Given Governor Kasich's ambitious job creation agenda as well as the impressive amount of German investment in Ohio," Ambassador Ammon noted, "which accounts for 30,000 jobs in the state, we should aim at nothing less than setting a high benchmark for successful cooperation to improve the skills of Ohio's workforce."

This investment comes from companies like BASF, Siemens, Linde and Wacker Chemical Corporation, all of which attended the discussion. Another pivotal role is played by education; participants in education, among others, were Columbus State Community College, Stark State Community College and Zane State Community College. In addition, the German American Chamber of Commerce lent their invaluable support to the discussion in Columbus.

Despite the healthy German commercial presence, a growing number of companies point to the lack of skilled workers as a hindrance to further growth. Simply put, job creation continues to try to pull skilled labor from the workforce but sometimes there are not enough skilled workers to keep up with the employers' needs. It's like two puzzle pieces, supply and demand, that are mismatched.

This is where German companies come in:

The German vocational training system, with its combination of classroom and business, theory and practice, learning and working, is recognized worldwide as a basic and highly effective model for vocational training. Germany provides a dual system, uniting companies that desire highly skilled employees with vocational training and educational institutions that know how to train them. And the best part is, workers are virtually guaranteed a job if they take part in such a dual track.

The Skills Initiative offers a way for German companies to share these best practices, which Germany has been using to train workers since the guild system originated in Medieval times, with American firms and workers, which they have had ample time to fine-tune.

"Today there are more than 3,400 German-owned companies in the US," Ambassador Ammon said. "They account for more than 600,000 jobs." And they bring their expertise in the afore-mentioned dual system with them, where it can take root on fertile US soil. Even still, the ambassador cautioned, "we cannot stop there."

The German Embassy would like to contribute to a process of exchange, in which best practices and key industrial information are exchanged freely between American and German manufacturers.

The event in Ohio was meant to unite German and American interests in getting down to business at a time when unemployment, especially among the young, continues to hound the American market. It is instructive to point to youth, actually, because many of the programs championed by German business provide those in their younger years with practical training and education at a level that falls somewhere between American high school and college standards – and right where it needs to be to land a stable job in manufacturing.

Ambassador Ammon outlined three takeaways from Columbus: best-practice sharing and "giving all stakeholders a chance to say where they see the most urgent needs"; bridging the "skills gap" by bringing together business and training facilities; and finally, creating a path to job creation in Ohio through initiatives like jointly setting up training programs, dual style earn-to-learn programs and processes to mutually recognize degrees and qualifications.

In addition to this discussion and a meeting with Governor Kasich, the ambassador is working with the governors of Maryland, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Virginia. The Skills Initiative began at a conference co-hosted by US Acting Secretary of Commerce Rebecca M. Blank on May 16, 2012 in Washington, DC.